Shopping season jobs report

The unemployment rate in the county was 4.3 percent in November, down from a revised 4.7 percent in October, and down from 5 percent from a year ago. San Diego did better than the nation, which had a 5 percent rate during the period, and California, which was at 4.4 percent

The county added 12,100 jobs in November, but 5200 of them were retail sales-related, greatly a result of the heavy holiday shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Trade, transportation and utilities, however, topped retail, up 6000.

Unemployment figures only measure the quantity of jobs. They do not capture the quality of those jobs. Inflation-adjusted household incomes, for example, have been down for some time, although they have picked up recently.